Research continues to be our best defense against cancer.
It improves survival and quality of life for millions of
individuals by spurring the development of new and better
ways to prevent, detect, diagnose, treat, and, increasingly,
cure some of the more than 200 diseases we call cancer.

;is progress against cancer is the result of the dedicated
e;orts of many individuals working together as part of the
broader biomedical research community (see sidebar on The
Biomedical Research Community, p. 2). It takes many years of
work by all stakeholders within this community to bring a new
medical product from initial research discovery to approval

CANCER IN 2014IN THIS SECTION YOU WILL LEARN:• THERE ARE NEARLY 14. 5 MILLION CANCERSURVIVORS IN THE UNITED STATES.• IN THE UNITED STATES, MORE THAN 1.6MILLION PEOPLE ARE PROJECTED TORECEIVE A CANCER DIAGNOSIS IN 2014, ANDMORE THAN 585,000 ARE EXPECTED TO DIEFROM THE DISEASE.• THE NUMBER OF NEW CANCER CASES PERYEAR IS PREDICTED TO RISE TO ALMOST 2. 4MILLION IN THE UNITED STATES, AND MORETHAN 24 MILLION GLOBALLY IN 2035.• CANCER IS A COSTLY DISEASE, BOTH IN THEUNITED STATES AND WORLDWIDE.

by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ;is
achievement was attained for six new anticancer therapeutics
between Aug. 1, 2013, and July 31, 2014 (see Table 1, p.
3).
During this period, the FDA also approved new uses for ;ve
previously approved anticancer therapeutics, two imaging
agents, and one screening test, thereby increasing the number
of patients bene;ting from them.

As a result of advances like these, the number of people
in the United States who survive their cancer continues
to increase year after year (see Figure 1). In fact, since
1971, the year the U.S. Congress passed the National
Cancer Act, the percentage of the U.S. population living
with, through, or beyond a cancer diagnosis has more
than tripled (1-4).